There are plenty of season finales that wrap up a TV show in certain ways. In fact, by the end of many TV series, the creators of the TV show are often running out of ideas. Sometimes, there are personnel changes that necessitate a quick end to them. And yet, there are other instances where some of the best material was saved for a “last dance” of sorts.
In the case of progressive rock // progressive metal // art rock band Fair To Midland, however, it’s pretty clear that the band had more to say. Especially when you take a listen to what’s apparently their final record, Arrows And Anchors. Describing Fair to Midland isn’t easy to do for the uninitiated, but it basically goes like this: progressive rock/art rock that can dive in almost any direction before you can even blink.
Released on July 11th, 2011, it’s more or less the band’s magnum opus. An almost perfect example of a band going out on top with some of their best material, that’s magnified by the sheer excellence of these songs as a whole. This isn’t to say that their previous material lacks accomplishments, as that could not be further from the truth. It was on their 2007 album Fables From A Mayfly that they were exposed to a new audience. Getting noticed by Serj Tankian of System Of A Down, Serj signed to the band to his vanity label at the time. The added attention landed Fair To Midland on some high-profile tours, and though they took four years to get Arrows And Anchors out, it still landed them a #65 Billboard 200 debut.
Unfortunately in the year or two after the album was released, the band had apparently accrued a serious amount of debt, leading to no real closure behind their apparent disbandment. That’s particularly sad considering just how far the band had come. Even the album’s singles (“Musical Chairs”, “Golden Parachutes”) employ vocalist Darroh Sudderth’s extensive vocal abilities and interesting lyrics that draw in the listener with serious accessibility. Couple that with the promising electronic influences on the latter and the country-folk influenced “Amarillo Sleeps On My Pillow”, and you have an album that appeals to general hard rock fans as well as prog weirdos (like me, hey! I’m the target audience). Fair To Midland went out on top, to be sure, but this should’ve been the album that made them stars.
